Harper mulls law change to block boatloads of asylum-seeker

Kathryn Blaze Carlson, National Post08.17.2010

Waran Vaithilingam, representing the Tamil people, awaits the start of Immigration hearing in downtown Vancouver on August 16, 2010. Many recent arrivals Tamil people are currently being held in custody in Maple Ridge.

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MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Ottawa "will not hesitate to strengthen the laws" in order to tackle the "trend" of would-be refugees arriving in Canada via people-smuggling ships, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday afternoon.

"Let me be clear: We are a land of refuge, but at the same time, I think Canadians are pretty concerned when a whole boat of people comes — not through any normal application process, not through any normal arrival channel — and just simply lands," Harper said at an Mississauga, Ont., event.

"We will not hesitate to strengthen the laws if we have to because ultimately — as a government, as a fundamental exercise of our sovereignty — we are responsible for the security of our borders."

It was the first time the prime minister has spoken on the issue of human-smuggling and seaborne asylum-seekers since the arrival in British Columbia last week of the MV Sun Sea — a Thai cargo ship that carried about 492 Tamils from Sri Lanka who are seeking refugee status in Canada.

Authorities are concerned that some of the migrants may be members of the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group outlawed in Canada.

Meanwhile, the first Tamil refugees to finish their immigration hearings will remain in detention for now, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has ruled.

The IRB held hearings for 75 claimants on Tuesday.

The first to appear was a young woman who braved the three-month voyage to reach family in Toronto. She travelled to Canada with her mother, father and brother.

Leeann King, an adjudicator with the board, said that the woman will be held in detention until her identity has "been established."

King heard that the claimant has turned over her original birth certificate and national identity papers to Canadian officials. She has also had one short interview.

But due to the large number of claimants, it will likely take some time for the government to analyze the documents, officials said. Extra immigration staff have been called in to help deal with the claimants and the immigration process.

Earlier Tuesday, the IRB announced that Canadian media will be allowed to attend the hearings on a case-by-case basis.

The detention reviews, which are supposed to be held within 48 hours of detention, but were delayed in this case due to the high number of arrivals, are typically closed to the public unless a special request is made.

However, King ruled that reviews — which determine why someone should or should not stay in custody — will remain closed to two Tamil advocacy groups, the Canadian Tamil Congress and the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.

The Canadian media will be prohibited from publishing the names of those on board.

Whether a review will be open to the media "will be still have to be dealt with as the first order of business in every hearing," said IRB spokeswoman Melissa Anderson.

If there are no objections from lawyers, the adjudicator can rule that media are allowed to attend, she added.

There were 443 adult Tamils aboard the MV Sun Sea, along with 49 children, who have been taken in by the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development.

In letters to the media on Monday, the Tamil migrants who arrived in British Columbia said they were fleeing mass murders, disappearances and extortion in Sri Lanka.

The country has just emerged from a long civil war between its Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority. The United Nations has estimated that the fighting killed at least 7,000 civilians during the final five months of the conflict, and displaced about 280,000 people.

Harper's remarks Tuesday echo the tough stance taken last week and over the weekend by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who recently said the MV Sun Sea was part of a "broader criminal enterprise" and a "test boat" intended to gauge Ottawa's attitude toward large numbers of refugees arriving by ship.

Toews suggested that there may be other people-smuggling vessels eyeing how Canada handles the claims of those aboard the MV Sun Sea.

"This trend does give us some significant concern and we'll take whatever steps are necessary going forward," Harper said, adding that it is Canada's right to exercise its "ability to welcome or not welcome people when they come."

Toews said earlier in the week that the tramp steamer which sailed across the Pacific to Vancouver Island with the would-be refugees was especially fitted to transport the maximum number of claimants and that the owners of the vessel would have made a handsome profit from the passengers.

He said that Canada's response to the latest influx of Tamils is being watched carefully in Asia and that similar voyages are anticipated.

Canada has a high acceptance rate when it comes to refugee claimants from Sri Lanka; Since January, 85 per cent of claimants from that country have been accepted.

Similar requests for public hearings were made last October for the 76 Tamils aboard the Ocean Lady, which also docked in British Columbia. In the end, only some of the hearings were made public, said Anderson.

With files from the Vancouver Province

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Harper mulls law change to block boatloads of asylum-seeker

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